"We are in a pretty sophisticated market here," Hummer said, as he squeegeed spilled suds into a floor drain Wednesday. "We don't have to dumb it down."

That means robust pale ales and red rye ales with 8 to 10 percent alcohol content, an assortment of Oktoberfest-style communal benches for trading notes on taste and drinkability, and a disdain for the squawking of multiple wall-mounted televisions.

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Hummer, son of Boulder Brewing Co. co-founder David Hummer, calls Gravity a beer "factory" with a tasting room attached -- even though that taproom can accommodate up to 88 people. Customers will be able to buy food from the American Legion next door.

"It's really just about beer and people," Hummer said, as he inspected the interior of one of Gravity's two huge fermentation tanks from atop a ladder. "It's going to be a far cry from a sports bar."

Hummer, who has been brewing beer for a quarter of a century, teamed up with two engineers, John Frazee and Ryan Bowers, a couple of years ago to form Gravity Brewing. The three raised $270,000 and began the search for a place to brew.

With no breweries in Louisville, Frazee said the city he calls home was a natural starting place for the real estate hunt. The aspiring craft brewers scoured storefronts up and down booming Main Street as possible sites for their operation, but in the end they chose a low-slung building just east of the railroad tracks that is home to the local American Legion post.

Frazee said unlike many of the older downtown commercial buildings, which don't have strong enough floors for brewing kettles and fermentation tanks and can't easily be retrofitted for industrial use, the building on Pine Street was up to the task. And Gravity has permission from the city to sell kegs out the backdoor on a wholesale basis.

Most important, Frazee said, the brewery's location is within easy walking distance of the bustling nightlife that often envelops Louisville's main downtown drag.

"We still meet that goal of being walkable and bikable (to Main Street) but still being a functional place for a brewery," Frazee said.

And with ambitious plans by the city to revitalize nearby Colo. 42 already in play, Frazee said Gravity could one day be the central gathering spot for Louisville's next hipster zone.

"It's a great place to be -- there's a lot of room for growth," he said.

Steve Kurowski, marketing director for the Colorado Brewers Association, said "it's about time" for a brewery in Louisville. Earlier this year, Gravity was in competition with at least two other craft brewers for the boasting rights to be the first to locate in the city. Six months later, only Gravity is left standing.

"I think Louisville should be extremely excited," Kurowski said. "They don't have to go to Boulder anymore -- they can have craft beer brewed right in their backyard."

He said there are now about 150 breweries in Colorado, with roughly two new ones opening each month. Within the past year, at least five craft brewers have opened in Boulder and Broomfield counties, bringing the local two-county area's industry to 24 craft breweries and brewpubs, according to the Brewers Association listings.

Kurowski said Gravity's location in an area with a slightly industrial feel is no different from what a handful of successful craft brewers in Denver have done recently.

"People will find them, for sure," he said.

Frazee said if Avery Brewing Co. in Boulder is any indication, remote locations away from major retail corridors don't have to be a drawback to business.

Although Gravity does its first pour Thursday, it officially opens Sept. 8.

Gravity Brewing co-founders John Frazee, left, and Julius Hummer on Wednesday at the Gravity Brewing pub on Pine Street in Louisville. Ryan Bowers, not pictured, is also a co-founder of Gravity Brewing.
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JEREMY PAPASSO
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